University of Virginia Library

Student Press
Scandalizes
U. Of Maryland

Reprinted from the Washington Post

University of Maryland President Wilson H.
Elkins was summoned here today by Baltimore
Count senators to account for the appearance
of off-color language and photographs of nudes
in student publications.

Try as he might to defend freedom of
expression by the campus editors, Elkins clearly
failed to free the legislators of a lingering
suspicion that things weren't what they used to
be, and perhaps should be investigated.

"I just can't comprehend this, Doctor, I'll be
honest with you," Sen. James A. Pine (D) told
Elkins.

What had scandalized Pine and five of his six
Baltimore County colleagues, was a literary
magazine published on the University's Catonsville
branch that contained ten photos of two
nude dancers, a man and a woman by
photographer Bob Stark. In the photos the
lighting is dim, the shadows heavy. Along with
other examples of Stark's work, they now are
on exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in
Washington.

The pictures alone induced the senators to
summon Elkins and Albion O. Kuhn, chancellor
of the branch campus, to today's meeting. They
were further appalled this afternoon when
delegation chairman Norman Stone (D) showed
them a week-old copy of the Diamondback, the
student newspaper.

Underlined in red were the quoted remarks
of a speaker at a student press convention in
Washington, who used four-letter words to
describe the condition of the Nation. A durable
old Anglo-Saxon verb was right in front of
them on page one.

Elkins conceded that neither the pictures
not the profanity were to his taste, but both he
and Kuhn refused to retreat from their adamant
position that the students had a right to print
what they wished, within the bounds of the
law.

"We want to impress on you that this is a
very difficult area," Elkins said. "A Communist
magazine was suppressed at College Park years
ago. Today it would be (considered) rather
mild." Faculty advisors had cleared both
publications, he told the senators.

Baltimore County Sen. Melvin A. Steinberg
(D) and a few other legislators who dropped in
on the meeting with Elkins expressed strong
reservations about legislative "interference"
with student publications.

"You're implying a threat" by calling Elkins
to Annapolis, said Sen. Royal Hart (D-Prince
George's), and "that's treading on dangerous
ground."

Sen. Verda Welcome (D-Baltimore) looked
at the magazine photographs and remarked,
"What beautiful bodies." Others insisted the
pictures and the profanity were both immoral.

"Take the astronauts, they wouldn't resort
to anything like this," said Sen. Williams
Hodges (D-Baltimore).

"The filthy minds have taken over the
colleges," said Sen. Frederick C. Malkus
(D-Lower Shore). "Would good schools like
Brigham Young or Notre Dame allow this sort
of thing?"

At the end of a 90-minute meeting, despite
some murmured misgivings, the senators agreed
at least temporarily to let the matter ride.